


She's A Pirate

by altoinkblots



Category: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Genre: F/M, First Meetings, Inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean, Swordfighting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:01:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29563692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/altoinkblots/pseuds/altoinkblots
Summary: Link narrows his eyes and walks over to the anvil. A hammer rests across it, decidedly not where he had last put it. He reaches his hand out, and his eyes catch something. A hat commonly worn by pirates, he realizes—when the cool blade of a rapier taps him lightly on his knuckles.After the events on the docks, Captain Tetra needs to get out of town and fast. One thing stands in her way, however: an upstart young blacksmith with a vendetta against pirates.
Relationships: Link/Tetra (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 16





	She's A Pirate

**Author's Note:**

> I blame [thephilosophersapprentice](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thephilosophersapprentice/pseuds/thephilosophersapprentice) for this one, but also send my thanks for being a sounding board/beta. This was also inspired by [Jill Bearup's](https://www.youtube.com/user/SursumUrsa) series on [flirty fights](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj4N-R1RQxAtdBv-bvf6iJPHlUdSiQXLi), which actually helped. Go check all of those people out.

Link softly closes the door behind him, greeted by the familiar smell of the burning forge and the soothing sound of the wooden mill turning. He turns around and hops down the ledge, frowning as he gets closer. Grandma is quietly snoring in the corner, awkwardly sprawled out on a chair. He holds a hand out to Epona and stops her, placing a hand on her neck. The grinding of wood stops. Grandma doesn’t use the forge or the mill, hasn’t in years. It’s mostly him that does the actual crafting. His eyes dart to the forge. That was definitely _not_ burning when he had left.

He gives Epona a few more pets along her grey coat and walks over to Grandma. He unbuttons his coat and tosses it haphazardly onto a nearby table next to a crowbar. Grandma sleeps like the dead but she snores like a cannon, so it’s unlikely she knows why the forge is burning. That, and he doesn’t want to wake her up.

He scans the forge. From a quick glance he can tell that nothing’s missing from the mill, the cart (that’s mostly used as a ramp for heavier items) is still placed on the ledge with the stopper keeping it in place, and the straw on the floor isn’t too displaced. Dust hangs in the air from the sun shining through the windows in the loft, where barrels and other bulky items are tied up and out of the way above the support beams.

Link narrows his eyes and walks over to the anvil. A hammer rests across it, decidedly _not_ where he had last put it. He reaches his hand out, and his eyes catch something. A hat commonly worn by pirates, he realizes—when the cool blade of a rapier taps him lightly on his knuckles.

Standing in front of him is a pirate. Her dirty blonde hair is tied up in a messy bun with a bandana, and her blue vest is ragged and torn. Her sleeves dangle from her arms, and various trinkets dangle from her. Link takes a few steps back. She removes the rapier, but keeps it pointed at him. Link’s mind races with possibilities, his every thought turning back to _pirate pirate pirate_ , but with the rumors about what had happened at the docks just starting to circulate, there’s only one person that she could be. “You’re a pirate. Tetra.” He spits the words at her.

Her head cocks to the side. “ _Captain_ Tetra, but that’s beside the point.” She narrows her eyes. “You seem familiar. Have I threatened you before?”

Link glares at her. “I make a point of avoiding familiarity with pirates.”

She nods as if that’s what she expected and turns to leave. “Well, it’d be a shame to stain your record, so if you’ll excuse me—”

Link grabs the nearest sword and lunges at her, stopping just before he makes contact. She raises her eyebrows at him. Then, still holding _his_ sword, she walks towards him. Smirking. “Do you think this is a good idea, kid? Crossing blades with a pirate?” She spits her words back at him. Link almost snorts; she doesn’t look any older than him. But he angles his sword closer to her throat and glares at her.

“You threatened Aryll.”

Tetra runs her blade down his and steps closer to him. Link doesn’t move a muscle. She smirks again. “Only a little. A bruise or two, nothing too long-term.”

If Link could cut her down in a second, he would. From what he has heard from the rumors, Aryll had been held at gunpoint by this very same pirate less than an hour ago, and she had been terrified. She had nearly died because of this pirate, and now Tetra expected Link to… what? Just let her _go_?

Link doesn’t blink as she lunges at his shoulder. He moves back into a defensive stance and parries her movements before she stops. There’s a rhythm to their swords striking each other. Link allows himself a small smile. It would be disappointing if this was an easy fight.

After a slight pause, he goes onto the offensive. He pushes her back, but she parries all of his strikes expertly, almost lazily. Even though she’s a pirate and he can easily cut her down, he wants to prolong this, pushing his reservations down. See how well she fights. For a pirate.

They keep the same rhythm going, with Tetra answering every one of his strikes with her own blade. She drops her stance and Link follows, keeping himself ready if she attacks again. Her move.

Instead of attacking outright, she walks towards him, relaxed. “You know what you’re doing, I’ll give you that much. But how good is your footwork?”

They both fall into the same stance and circle around each other, their feet moving against the straw-covered floor at the same time. Link brushes his blade against hers, earning a raised eyebrow. He grins.

“If I step here—” she moves, he parries “—good. Now I step again.”

Link moves around her and she spins around him. He raises his blade behind him for a moment, keeping his eyes trained on her. The fight hasn’t been straining or even hard, but he still finds himself a little out of breath.

She stops, a smile hinting at her lips. The chain attached to her wrist swings for a moment, the only sound in the forge. Link’s eyes don’t leave her. She winks at him before hopping up the ledge and to the door. Link holds his sword loosely at his side.

Tetra strolls up to the door and goes to lift the bar holding the door shut. Link throws his sword. It’s a stupid move, he knows it the second that he does it, but she can’t leave. Not yet. Besides, with any luck the damage to the sword will be minimal. Hopefully.

She freezes and slowly turns her head to stare at the wobbling blade, a mere hair’s breadth from her nose. She glances over at him as if to say, “Really?” then grabs it by the handle and pulls. The door shakes, but the sword doesn’t move. Tetra grasps the hilt with both of her hands and pulls with all her might. She struggles for a moment longer before she huffs and turns around with her hands on her hips. “That’s a wonderful trick, but you’re between me and my way out. Again. The kiddie gloves are coming off, kid, and you’re without a weapon.”

Link glances over at the mill that Epona is currently tied to. The donkey stares unblinkingly at him. Tetra walks down the cart and between him and the other swords attached to the mill. She lazily twirls her sword around and Link grabs the first thing he can think of: the fireplace poker with a red-hot tip. Tetra blinks at it, then raises her eyebrows at him. Epona brays and starts to walk, filling the forge with the sound of wood clanking against wood.

Tetra turns and runs. Link follows her and tries to knock her down with a well-placed blow to the face, but she blocks it and changes direction.

All sense of rhythm they had earlier flies out the window. She keeps her eyes trained on the red-hot poker and jumps out of the way, only for Link to take advantage of her mild panic and swing at her again. She grows and reaches out for him. He barely manages to grab her wrist and hold her back as their weapons cross above his head. Strands of hair fall out of her bun and her face is flushed, her breath coming out of her nose in short, tight bursts across his face. Link doesn’t have time to catch his now-heavy breathing before he pushes her off and swipes at her stomach. She jumps out of the way just in time.

Link lunges at her. She wraps her chain around the poker in a single movement and throws it across the room. She growls under her breath. Link barely has time to duck under her blade and dive into a somersault around Epona while Tetra swipes at him. He grabs the nearest sword and turns around right before she swings at him again. Sweat drips down the back of his neck. He easily knocks her sword out of the way and jumps onto the moving pillar opposite her.

Tetra notices the dozens of swords around them, then looks at Link. “Who the hell makes all of these?”

“I do,” he says as their blades meet again. He spins around the pillar and their swords clash. “And I practice with them for three hours every day.”

Tetra’s sword meets his. “You need to find yourself a girlfriend. Or boyfriend. Someone to let out all of that pent-up tension with.”

Link grins. “I guess it’s a good think you broke in, then. Otherwise what would I do with my time?”

She rolls her eyes and grabs a knife before she jumps down into the middle of the forge, her feet scuffing against the straw as she falls into a new stance. Link grabs another sword and catches up to her, the only sounds coming from them is that of their clashing blades and heavy breathing.

“Or,” she says, hesitating for a moment while her brown eyes stare into him, “maybe you practice for three hours a day because you’ve already found someone. That girl, perhaps?” Her voice is sharp, sharper than normal.

Link raises his eyebrows. “She’s my sister, you weirdo.”

“Never mind, then. Let’s move past this.”

“Agreed.”

“Why do you practice that much, though? Three hours, that’s a little excessive. Even for you.”

“I practice,” Link says, “so that when I meet a pirate, I can kill it!”

Tetra purses her lips. “I thought we had moved past that already.”

She takes a step back into a defensive stance. Link slashes at her, and her parry is half-hearted. She walks backwards onto the cart, entirely on the defensive. The second Link steps onto the cart, however, the stopper holding the cart in place slips. The cart teeters off of the ledge. Both of them hold their arms out to regain their balance. Link’s eyebrows furrow in concentration. With each move that they make against each other, the cart teeters all over again and they have to balance all over again.

Tetra goes for his knees, Link goes for her shoulder. It takes all of Link’s skill to keep himself steady on the constantly moving cart while keeping Tetra from eviscerating him. Sweat drips down Link’s hair and upper lip. Tetra’s face is flushed.

With a well-timed move, Link cuts the bandana holding her bun in place. Her hair falls down her back. She spits some of it out of her mouth and glowers at him. Link doesn’t give her time to recover. He lunges at her, but she wraps her chain around his blade once more. Link thrusts his sword into a support beam right above their heads. She fumbles, her fingers trying to wrap around the chain while standing on the wobbling cart, but Link takes his other sword and swipes at her. She growls and parries it with the knife. Blonde hair falls into her face and she splutters.

She tries to lunge at him with the knife, but her reach isn’t long enough. She stomps on one of the wooden planks, hard enough to send it flying into Link’s face. He stumbles back, falling off of the cart. She pulls herself up and presses her feet on either side of the sword stuck into the beam and pushes. She spits more hair out of her face.

Link scrambles to his feet and grabs his discarded sword off of the ground and jumps onto the cart. Tetra cries out just as the sword breaks free and falls into the cart. Link goes flying into the air, barely managing to catch himself on the beam. She rolls to a stop against the stone ledge.

Link hauls himself up onto the beam and allows himself to finally catch his breath. She’s good. Better than he would like to admit. He has the advantage of knowing everything about this forge, but she clearly has far more experience than he does. She takes every challenge that he throws her way and turns it on him tenfold. Link would be lying to himself if he said he wasn’t enjoying it. Even still, she had threatened Aryll. He has to remember that.

Tetra lets out a tired groan and rises to her feet. She picks up the sword and steps onto the cart and looks around before her eyes slowly rise to him. A corner of her mouth turns upward in a cocky grin. Link winks at her, then pulls on a knot holding empty barrels in the air. Her eyes widen as the barrels tumble onto the cart. She half jumps, half flies into the air and wraps her arms and legs around a support beam. She shakes her head with her eye shut, her hair falling into her face. Panting, she rises to her feet and her dark eyes meet his. With the dusty sunlight streaming into the forge, they almost look gold.

Link waits for her to stand. They hop onto opposing wooden beams at the same time, then again. She narrows her eyes, then jumps onto his same beam. Link lets the thrill of the fight and the height take over for a moment, and he smiles as their blades meet again and again. It’s sturdier than the cart, but it _feels_ more dangerous.

He jumps across the gap to get a better angle, and she follows. She wobbles slightly, and Link takes the chance to knock her blade out of her hand and send it clattering on the ground. She blinks at him then runs. Link follows her.

She jumps off of the beam like a swan and swings down. Link takes a much quicker path while she shakes the hair out of her face next to the forge. Link runs up to her, but she takes the bag of sand next to the forge and dumps the sand into his face.

Immediately, Link shuts his eyes and turns away, shielding himself as much as he can. She kicks the sword out of his hand. He blindly reaches for something that resembles a sword and bumps his back into a pole. He blinks his eyes open, only to see her pointing a revolver at his face, her expression like stone. A single bead of sweat runs down the side of her flushed face and she’s breathing heavily. Her eyes are no longer gold. She looks every inch the pirate.

It takes a few moments for Link to catch up to his breathing and racing heart. “You cheated.”

Her expression doesn’t change as she says, “Pirate. Remember?”

Link does. He finally does. He remembers the shouts and the smell of sulfur and brine in the air, the ship groaning and creaking around him and Aryll. His father, telling them to run, to go, his mother shouting orders to their crew, one word carrying above the rest: _pirates_. He remembers the sea, the ocean filling his lungs as he does everything he can to keep Aryll afloat, to keep her safe. He remembers the gold coin Aryll keeps on her, as a last memory of their parents. He remembers the sheer _terror_ and _panic_ he felt at hearing the rumors of Aryll being held at gunpoint by a pirate. _This_ pirate standing in front of him. Captain Tetra.

He had nearly lost Aryll, his better half. Again.

Shouts startle him, and Tetra glances at the door behind her. Link catches a glimpse of red through the cracks in the door. Tetra makes a move to escape, but Link blocks her.

“Move,” she says.

“No.”

“Move.”

“I can’t.”

She looks frantic, now. “ _Please_.”

“No!” He lowers his voice, pleading with her. “I cannot step aside and let you escape.”

She glances back at the shaking door, then cocks the revolver. Link’s heart stops in his chest. Tetra looks right at him, her golden-brown eyes meeting his. “This shot is not meant for you.” Link knows that she means it.

He doesn’t move. He stares at her, holding a crowbar in a semi-offensive stance. Her hand starts to shake slightly. Link breaths heavily, still catching his breath from their fight. She lowers the revolver a little and and shifts her weight forward right as a glass bottle smashes on the backside of her head. She crumples to the ground.

Grandma stands there, holding a broken neck of a bottle in one hand and her other resting on her hip. “What?” Grandma asks. “You weren’t going to do anything.”

The soldiers burst through the door. Grandma turns to them and cocks and eyebrow. “Well? Aren’t you going to arrest her?”

They stand there, almost dumbstruck. Epona stops walking, the creaking of the wheel slowing. Link puts the crowbar on the table, grabs his coat, and leaves.

**Author's Note:**

> I may continue this, maybe not. Ether way, it was fun to write. Thanks for reading, and don't forget to leave a kudos/comment!!


End file.
